Spring Lambs

I love this time of year.  Everything is about new life, new beginnings.  It makes me feel restless, excited and happy and this year more than any other year I am appreciating it as I am struggling a bit on the happiness front.

My kind, gentle mother, who is now in a dementia support unit, has turned into an aggressive, bad tempered old lady who is threatening to beat up the other residents and is frightening even herself :((  It is giving me many sleepless nights but as soon as the dawn chorus starts up at 5am I know it will quickly soothe me back to sleep...it is such a relief and any country walk will distract me from my worries as I get so absorbed spotting the emerging wildlife and, of course, there is always something going on in the garden.  Our latest new visitors are two very attractive red legged partridges...

But the very BEST and TOTAL distraction from my mother's issues are the two days when I am on lambing duty at the farm:))))

I cannot put into words how much I enjoy lambing time.  This year we are lambing outside so it involves a lot of walking between the various fields which I actually like, because, as well as seeing the sheep enjoying the sunshine after the long cold winter, we are accompanied by the sound of Skylarks above, while Swallows swoop over the grass in front of us and it is not unusual to see a fox (although with vulnerable lambs around I would rather not) and we frequently spot roe deer...

We also walk through a field of cows owned by the farmer that shares the farm so one can always admire Wellington the bull who is thankfully very friendly...

And some of the new born calves...

But back to lambing.  This year the Project has a breeding flock of  a few Herdwicks as well as the usual Beulahs and Jacobs.  The Herdwicks are nice sheep but they really make one appreciate our flock of Beulahs and Jacobs.  Over the last few years of lambing the then grazing officer has carefully selected only those ewes with the best temperaments to breed from and this has paid off as they are now so easy to manage with even the first timers causing few problems.  The Herdwicks however seem to have a tendency to prefer to be with each other rather than their new born lambs and are not too keen on humans being around but thankfully within a day or two they have settled down to enjoy family life more.  Their lambs vary quite a lot from all black, to strange combinations of grey.  This one, who I've name Koala because he looks like a Koala Bear, was the first Herdwick lamb born..

Our Jacobs were put to a different ram this year and we have had some handsome good sized lambs.  These twins that my hubby is holding are only a day old but are quite big, weighty boys...

But there has to be one that lets the side down and this Jacob has to be one of the smallest I've seen, however,  she stands up to her larger brother when at the milk bar so I think she will soon grow big and strong.  I've named her Crowpecked as when we arrived the morning after her birth we found her tail and back legs were all bloody where, unfortunately, a crow had taken a liking to her tail and pecked two big holes in it. We carefully cleaned her up (it is important not to change the smell of a lamb especially around its back side as this is where the mother smells it as one of her own) and with a dose of antibiotics and some time in the barn it was looking more cheerful.

I find I am beginning to like sheep almost as much as horses.  They frequently make me laugh with their antics and just as the Jacob managed to up-end me (see last post) so a Beulah had a good go at doing the same to my husband and everyone else in the vicinity...note the tangle of human legs...lol...:))))))

We are about half way through lambing so I will hopefully have a few more Ahhhh pictures in my next post but here are a few more to be going on with...

Preparations

I was telling a friend about the albino badger that visits our garden and she remarked that at least it will be less likely to get killed on the road.  Needless to say, the next day, there was a beautiful albino badger laying dead in a nearby lane. I was very fed up as I had really enjoyed watching this funny little chap as he dug up my lawn, snuffling for goodies.  However a couple of days later the security light went on, which is my signal that there is wildlife in the garden, and there was an albino badger..??  Looking back at my photos I now realize that there had been two albinos visiting the garden. They were more or less identical apart from one had a faint grey spot on its rump. I now only have three badgers visiting at various times of the night... or do I?  There's Norm the normal, Half-n-half and Al the albino but I think I need to look more carefully at all my photos as although Half-n-half is unmistakable there could be any number of Norms:)

All this cold weather has been making life difficult for animals and humans alike but one good thing is that it often brings different birds to the feeder.  Last week we had a Brambling visit.  It is perhaps not that exciting to most people as I think they are fairly common but it is the first time we have had one in the garden so it was exciting to me.

It has been a busy time 'down on the farm' as lambing is imminent.  All the hurdles have had to be scrubbed and disinfected...

The barn had to be cleared, the floors swept and scraped, the sides washed and the whole lot sprayed with disinfectant...

Then all the mothering up pens had to be constructed.

Don't underestimate what hard work this all is..by the end of the second day hubby and I were so exhausted we had to resort to whisky and a take-away when we got home!!

Then there were the Herdwicks that needed a worm egg count which entailed my husband and I standing for two very long, very cold hours, in snow and freezing wind, waiting for ten sheep to do some droppings....thank goodness for my ski jacket that I bought for £20 in a sale a few years ago.....

And then there was the glorious job of crutching the breeding ewes. This is where the fleece is removed from around their backsides.  It helps to see if the emerging lamb is correctly presented or not and makes it more hygienic and, with the fickle British weather, if it should suddenly turn warm, it helps to prevent fly strike.  It was while holding one of the Jacobs that I suddenly found myself flying through the air!!!!! :)))) Another Jacob Ewe (after telling its flock mates to, "watch this for a laugh,") had crept round behind me then made a dash through my legs totally upending me.  I am sure it was the same pesky Jacob that managed to knock me over TWICE last year by neatly hooking its horn behind my knee and I am also sure that, like the last times, I heard some sheepy sounding chuckles too:)  I am now covered in bruises and ache all over but I think I got the last laugh as at least I don't have to go around with a naked backside:))))

It has been a hard week or so and not helped by the torn cartilage in my knee.  This is an injury I sustained during lambing last year but it has taken all this time for the consultant to write saying, ' for the sake of speed I am writing to you to recommend surgery.'  I can't believe it....for the sake of speed...it's only taken a whole year to get to this point and now I am on a waiting list for goodness knows how long!  That's the NHS but I suppose I should be grateful that something can be done and I don't have to pay for it.

Anyway, I am very pleased to say that everything is now ready to go now and looking back it has all been quite enjoyable work.  My next post should have some cute lamb pictures in it but meanwhile here is a cute calf picture taken on a rare sunny day giving these City of London calves, that were born at the farm over the winter, their first taste of sunbathing....Ahhhh.